RichardP
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----------------On 6/8/2005 8:49:35 PM wheelman wrote:----------------On 6/6/2005 10:32:01 PM RichardP wrote:This is an unexpected surprise! Thanks to Thebes for maintaining this great series of threads, and for the t-shirt. Also, thanks to all of you who offer your recommendations. I have made several purchases from your suggestions.For this week, Our Lady Peace, "Gravity" 2002, CD, "alternative" (and therefore, mainstream?) rock; one track "Somewhere Out There" got airplay a year or two ago.----------------I'll recomend Our lady Peace- Naveed, and Clumbsy. You got them Richardp?----------------
I do have "Clumsy" also. I have only listened to it a couple of times, but I like "Gravity" somewhat better. I think those two are a few years apart, so maybe their songwriting style changed a bit. I'll listen to both more and compare.
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This is an unexpected surprise! Thanks to Thebes for maintaining this great series of threads, and for the t-shirt. Also, thanks to all of you who offer your recommendations. I have made several purchases from your suggestions.
For this week, Our Lady Peace, "Gravity" 2002, CD, "alternative" (and therefore, mainstream?) rock; one track "Somewhere Out There" got airplay a year or two ago.
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quote: "I think if one were on a limited budget, 3 pairs of KG2.5s and a sub (or two) would be a great sounding bang for the buck home theater."
Last year I set up my friend with my "old" speakers, two KG2.2s and a 2.2V, for about $250, and he bought two matching KG 1.2s as rears from ebay for $120, added a cheap Velodyne sub, and it is a wonderful system for a condo-sized living room. He couldn't be happier (although if he was a more discriminating listener, he should get a better sub). Those KG 2.x speakers are a perfect size for someone who can't accommodate huge speakers, yet make a great HT system with a sub.
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----------------On 5/17/2005 6:41:00 PM vanderrg wrote:Okay, good news. My home is rumbling appropriately; no cats to assess for terror but my 14-month-old periodically flees the room during explosions. My new sub is fine, and I feel very very much better. I have the sub that I was hoping for and the sense of relief is huge.First off thanks to everyone who posted for me here...this forum is a great resource.Basically I had a good telephone conversation with the Speaker Doctor and now I understand what was going on...it truly is a problem that was corrected with "calibration" (even a loose one without AVIA, which I ordered but hasn't arrived yet)...thanks to the doc for helping me to understand why it made sense for me to have to crank the gain on the sub up to 70% AND crank up the level in my receiver's level settings, and why my older sub sounded similar before I did.I feel like an idiot, but in my defense there are concepts in play here that aren't necessarily intuitive and I can't help but wonder how many people out there are living with suboptimal sound because they don't have access (or don't realize they have access) to this kind of info on forums like this.Anwyay thanks again!Bob----------------
Could/would you describe those non-intuitive concepts that you and Spkrdctr resolved? That info may be quite useful to many forum readers.
Thanks.
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Brian Setzer Orchestra, "The Dirty Boogie," CD 1998. Same genre as Setzer's Stray Cats quartet, only with big band backing Setzer's vocals and blazing guitar in front. Very high energy, in a crisp recording. If you like big band, but with a more contemporary edge, this is it.
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I have that Spin Doctors CD and have not listened to it in years. Your post has inspired me to do so. I "sampled" several such bands in the early and mid 90s, only to lose general interest in music, until about 3 years ago, when a DD5.1 receiver, Forte-Quartet HT, and this forum revived my interest immensely.
As far as your top ten list, given your other choices and my inferences about what you like (not too different than my favorites), what about Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms"?
"I want my MTV..."
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I never saw this local band, but they were the "White Trash Express," their self-labelled style as evolutionary bluegrass. Their poster was illustrated with that famous human evolution series, showing the progression from ape-like forms to modern humans, but in place of the modern human, the evolutionary series ended with Stringbean, the country music comic from the 70s.
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As long as they are not touching/rubbing on something else, they should be fine. You might consider taping some cardboard, particle board, etc., over the passive radiator on the back, in case something accidentally gets pushed against the backside.
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I have purchased many CDs and DVD-audio disks from www.half.com. They are owned by Ebay, but is not an auction. People offer their own used and new items for a fixed price. You use the feedback reports as you do in Ebay to find a reputable seller. Shipping per item is around $2.79 for media mail, which is much less than the usual Ebay auction shipping (though not as good as the free shipping options from the "digital eyes" site mentioned above).
To find DVD-Audio items on Half.com, you must search within the "DVD/Movies" section and enter "dvd audio" (no hyphen) as the search term to see all such items. To find SACD, search within the "Music" section and enter "SACD" as search term. I have ordered 50 or so disks from them in the last 18 months; I have had to send back around 5 for defects, but all sellers refunded my money.
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Thanks, everybody, for the advice and warnings. I will certainly stay away from the hydroflouric acid; despite our usual ravings on this forum, the speaker appearance is not worth such a risk. I am going to give it one more try, with the wet-dry sandpaper and some lacquer paint. If that doesn't work, I think I will just chuck this $7 piece of abused glass and get a piece of dark smoked glass, which is about $20 around here.
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Michael, given that the etching option seems dangerous and unpleasant, is there any other way to get a semi-hard coating (black, glossy) onto the glass? Obviously, a previous owner of my speakers did so, but I don't know who that was. The coating does not have to stand up to abrasion or scratching, as nothing will be placed on the speaker top, but it will have to be hard enough not to rub off with light fingernail pressure (as all my attempts do now).
Thanks.
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I have Cornwalls which have glossy black glass tops, put there by a previous owner to cover blemishes in the walnut-stained birch. I had to replace a broken piece, which turned out to be plain glass with some sort of hard finish. I have tried to paint a black
finish on it several times now, and none has bonded to the glass. I have tried regular krylon spray paint (didn't stick), sanding the glass before painting (couldn't really rough it up much), paint on top of a primer (primer didn't bond to glass), etching the surface with muriatic acid then primer & paint (no etching really occurred), and acrylic paint for made for artsy glass projects (texture way too thick). I know about some glass paints which are self-leveling, and some made to be oven-hardened, but unfortunately the glass sheet won't fit in my oven. I would have to order these online, without knowing if they would work. Is there someone who knows paint, especially specialty paints for glass, who could give me some advice or suggestions? (I am looking in your direction, Michael Hurd
) Thanks in advance for any assistance. -
I don't think I have ever seen a lower feedback record (88%) anywhere on Ebay, except those based on only a few transactions. I am sure that with such a volume, Ebay doesn't care about the 13K negatives.
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Thanks Gil and Fini, very much. Gil, I see exactly what you are talking about, having the 1x2s attached underneath the main 1x12 instead of on the edge of it. Fortunately, that is within my modest woodworking skills. Here's one more question: do you think I should still try to have the shelf rest on the TV top only at the left and right edges, so no weight is in contact with the middle flexy portion of the TV top, or will this channel structure be so rigid as to not flex at all?
Fini: I guess I am living dangerously, as I have never worried much about the speaker falling off the TV (and the speaker is even tilted down a couple of degrees with a 1x2 propping it up underneath in the back; speaker is on its side, of course). I don't have kids or others who would bump it, nor do I live in an earthquake area, and believe it or not, I have even rolled the TV with speaker out a foot or two to make/change connections in the back! I have thought about attaching a small piece of metal or something to the shelf front to form a small lip, so the speaker would not slip over the front edge if it got a big bump. Your suggestion of the metal shelving is a very good solution, but it just would not fit in with my decor that well. My room has a lot of natural wood moulding, and of course, there is a lot of that nice Klipsch walnut in all parts of the room. As far as this shelf goes, I found a textured spray paint that matches the dark gray of the Mitsubishi RPTV very closely, so it will look fairly unobtrusive.
Thanks again for all your great suggestions.
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I use a Quartet as my center speaker which sits on top of my 55" RPTV. The speaker weighs about 50 lbs., which is heavy enough to cause the top of the TV cabinet to sag. I thought about using a 1/4" sheet of tempered glass, but found it would cost about $65 and still may not prevent sag. My alternate plan is to build a shelf-like structure which will span the width of the TV top (50"wide X 12" deep) but contact only the left and right edges of the TV top on 1x2x12 or 2x2x12 "legs" or "skids" attached underneath the shelf. Thus the weight of speaker and shelf will be resting on, and supported mainly by, the TV's side panels, without resting on the TV's top center surface. My question is, what will be the stiffest wood product to use in this situation? I have looked at 1x12 pine, which flexes a little; laminated (edge-to-edge) 1x12 pine boards, which seem stiffer; and have also thought of glueing and screwing two such boards together. I also thought that a front and/or back "face" glued and screwed to the edge of the shelf would add stiffness. 3/4" plywood would seem very rigid, but I don't think I can get it locally larger than a 4x4 sheet (just shy of my 50" needed width). Are there any carpenters or engineers out there who could advise me? I cannot build an actual shelf on the wall, nor is there room to use an entertainment center "bridge" over the TV, so it has to be something that is not too heavy that can sit on top of the TV. Thanks in advance.
Here is a crude text-character illustration:
< speaker >
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <--- 50"x12" x ? shelf
xx xx <--- 1"x 2" (or 2x2) "legs"
-------------------------------- <--- top of TV
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I especially liked his statement that among his favorite movies is "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"
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I bought my Fortes in 1989 new for $1000. I think new ones usually retailed for between $1000-$1200. I bought a pair of Forte IIs a couple of years ago for about $400, but that is cheaper than the average. $400-$600 is a typical Ebay price for used ones in pretty good to excellent condition.
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It's not exactly the same as tonsil surgery, but I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted yesterday (at age 49), and I must be having the easiest time of it that anyone ever had. I dreaded it until I got in the chair, then got the nitrous oxide then the anesthesia via IV, then I woke up about an hour later, the bleeding stopped in a couple of hours, and the Lorcet pain pills kicked in. I have been in a nearly-euphoric, energetic mood for two days. Got all sorts of household chores done, including installing casters on my audio rack, making and hooking up a shielded subwoofer cable, and burning CDs from a friend. Aren't pharmaceuticals wonderful?
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If you have room, and the $, then a Quartet (smaller sib to Forte & Chorus)) will make for a nearly-identical timbre match with a Forte II (only slightly less so with a Forte I). Quartets use the same midrange and tweeter as a Forte II (most critical for matching); they have a 10" woofer (vs. 12") and 12" passive (vs. 12" or 15"). If you remove the base/riser (easy to do), then you have a 48-50 lb center (29"x16"x12"), which many TVs or shelves will hold. One or two pairs of Quartets seem to appear on Ebay about every month, about as often as KG 2.2Vs. Q's sell for $300-$400; 2.2Vs sell for $100-$150. I did have a Forte-KG2.2 arrangement once, and it sounded quite good. I have heard that the KT-LCR can match OK, but I hardly ever see them on Ebay.
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A couple of things you might consider: first, if you want to listen mainly to music in DPLII mode, realize there should be only a low level of sound from rear speakers, just enough to provide a sense of spaciousness. I listen to a lot of music in this mode, but mainly to get a better center image; in fact, I often hear too much rear effect for my liking even at the lowest setting. With this in mind, you could get a pair of Heresys to see if you like them, with the KG-4s in the rear; with so little sound coming from the rears, exact matching should not be as critical. However, even if that sounds good for DPLII music, it won't be optimal for any eventual home theater setup. For HT, you want identical speakers, or at least matched speakers, all around. That consideration might argue for two more KG4s (or 4 more) instead of Heresys. A HT setup with all KG4s could sound better than a mismatched arrangement that includes more expensive speakers. You could use a 5th KG4 for a center if your setup allows that size, and if not, there are models designed to be centers for KG4s, i.e., the KV-1, KV-2, KV-3, and/or KV-4 (I don't know which would match best, someone else can say, I'm sure). There aren't any matching centers for Heresys, except another Heresy. KG4s seem to go for between $175-$250/pr on Ebay, so more of them would be cheaper than two Heresys, which usually go for $350-$550/pr. The one good thing about buying vintage Klipsch is that if you want to change, you can nearly always sell them down the road for the same price you paid initially.
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I have seen this terms before, so I'll ask now: What is MFSL?
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Yes, I would like to know also, for both paddle-type switches as well as rotary knobs, like the volume control.
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I agree that the most memorable scene in MBFW is when they sing "I say a little prayer..", the Burt Bacharach song made famous by Dionne Warwick. That movie, together with the Austin Powers trilogy, have done a lot to refresh those great Bacharach melodies from the 60s and 70s. When they were top 40 hits in my adolescent days, I considered them forgettable fluff; in my middle age, I recognize them as truly great songwriting.
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For the price, you won't do any better than an HT system with Fortes, Quartets, and/or Choruses. If you have a rear projection TV, a Quartet can sit on top (if the TV cabinet can support it) and it won't affect the image (RPTV guts are down low in the cabinet). If it is a regular CRT TV, then in order to rest the speaker on top you would have to shield it with bucking magnets; instructions on getting and installing them are elsewhere on the forum. Otherwise, placing it below the TV or above it on a shelf are the obvious solutions. I took the base/riser off a Quartet (very easy) and it makes a reasonably-sized center, with the exact same midrange and tweeter (the most critical matches) as my Forte II fronts. However, it was a pain getting the Klipsch name badge off the cloth screen so I could reposition it at top center. I am still not using the other Quartet, but plan someday to add it as a rear center for DD 6.1 sources.
Boomac, I am certainly no expert, but I recall a thread last year in which someone said two centers on either side can interfere with each other's sound waves and degrade the imaging. On a related note, I had an older Yamaha ProLogic receiver with two center outputs, but I think that's rare these days.
) Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Surrounds for Fortes
in Home Theater
Posted
If space is tight, then surrounds from the KG 2.2/2.5 or KG 1.2/1.5 series would work fairly well. There is nothing small that is an exact timbre match for Fortes, but many of us have used (currently or at one time) the 2.2/2.5 or 1.2/1.5 with nice results. You should be able to get a pair of those on Ebay for about $150 or less.